StmaryOfSorrows.org
Title
St. Mary of Sorrows, Fairfax, VA
Description
In 1838, two Catholic families living in Fairfax, the Hamills and the Cunninghams, donated a tract of land to the Diocese of Richmond in hope of having a church built and a Catholic cemetery consecrated. A cemetery was created immediately. In the late 1850s, the Orange and Alexandria Railroad began to lay track westward from Alexandria and advertised for working men. Irish immigrants responded and ultimately settled at Fairfax Station. The pastor of St. Mary's in Alexandria and his assistant took care of the spiritual needs of the Catholics at Fairfax; they often said mass for railroad workers in boxcars standing at the Station, about one-quarter mile from the Historic Church. These immigrants became the nucleus of the new parish. Their names can still be read on the tombstones standing in St. Mary's cemetery.
In 1858 the Bishop of Richmond laid the cornerstone for the new St. Mary's and designated it a mission of St. Mary's in Alexandria. The men of the parish built the church on a slight hill overlooking what was then the main road leading into Fairfax from the south. For the framework, they used rough-hewn lumber probably logged from the heavily wooded area that surrounded the site. The only major purchase was a steeple bell from a firm in Baltimore. St. Mary's was dedicated in 1860.
It was not long after the dedication that the clouds of war appeared on the Virginia landscape. Given the church's important location on the main road from Fairfax Courthouse to the depot of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad (now Fairfax Station), the area, with St. Mary's as an identifying point, quickly became an important objective for both Northern and Southern armies vying to dominate the railroads in the area. At the outbreak of the war, Confederate forces were positioned in the area surrounding St. Mary's. The Union Army controlled the railroad out to Burke while the Confederate Army controlled the Manassas area. Therefore the land in between, where St. Mary's stood, was the scene of frequent, violent skirmishes
